Minimum Wage Campaign Grows, Senior Housing Advocacy Progressing in State Budget and Paid Family Leave Update
Minimum Wage Campaign Grows
Governor Cuomo held a telephone town hall last night answering questions from voters from the five boroughs. The Governor was joined by the president of 1199 SEIU, George Gresham. Gresham told callers that if they wanted to get involved, they could record a message to their legislators after the conference call was finished. The coalition of unions and advocacy groups pushing for the raise in minimum wage now have a name, Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice. The coalition will be holding a rally in the Capitol on March 15th, just as budget negotiations start to heat up. The Governor plans to hold one for every region of the state by the end of the budget talks in Albany, but has yet to set a formal schedule. State of Politics talks about it here.
Senators Jeff Klein and Diane Savino of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) joined 1199 SEIU for a rally in New York City this week in support of an increased minimum wage for homecare workers. The IDC maintains that an increased minimum wage will boost the state’s economy by reducing worker turnover, reducing dependence on public assistance and creating jobs. At the same time, the IDC recognizes that funding must be added to ensure that providers are able to pay these wages to prevent cuts in services.
Minimum Wage Advocacy: We had an additional 33 advocates reach out to legislators this month, for a total of 192 emails sent to lawmakers and three Tweets. We need to significantly increase these numbers and start getting our message out on our social media platforms. Now that 30-day amendments have been released and the governor failed to include any funding for providers to cover the cost of minimum wage increases, it is crucial that your legislators know how these costs will impact your ability to provide quality services. Find our campaign here and don’t forget, you can Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting MINIMUM WAGE to 52886.
Senior Housing Advocacy Progressing in State Budget
LeadingAge NY and other affordable housing organizations have continued pushing lawmakers to create and fund a new Senior Housing Capital program, and to fund the dormant Resident Advisor Program, which would provide funding for supportive services. The capital program would allocate $250 million over five years, to create 2,500 new affordable senior apartments statewide. The Resident Advisor Program, funded at $10 million per year, would provide service coordination funding for all newly created units, as well as funding for many existing senior housing developments.
We are pleased to report that Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, chair of the Committee on Aging, sent a letter to the Assembly Speaker encouraging a line item for senior housing capital and funding for the Resident Advisor Program in the Assembly’s one-house budget, which is expected to be adopted by mid-March. Housing Committee Chair Keith Wright has been meeting with affordable housing advocates regularly, and is expected to propose a detailed housing budget that includes capital funding for senior housing. LeadingAge NY and Senior Housing Coalition members have also had productive conversations with staff in both the Senate and Assembly, and are hopeful that new senior housing capital funding could appear in one or both of the one-house budget proposals.
Senior Housing Advocacy: Please let your elected representatives know the importance of including funding for senior housing in the 2016-2017 budget. Currently, we only have 26 advocates, for a total of 51 emails and three Tweets sent to lawmakers. We need to step these numbers up! Use this link to go to our Advocacy webpage and send a letter directly to your elected representatives. Don’t forget, you can also Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting HOUSING to 52886.
Paid Family Leave Update
The Governor amended his paid family leave proposal in his 30-day budget amendments, which came out late last Friday. The changes add midwives and health practitioners to the definition of “health care provider; require employers to maintain any existing health benefits of the employee while they receive paid family leave; clarify an employee can’t receive family leave and disability concurrently and an employee who has given birth can’t use more than 12 weeks of combined leave. Finally, the proposal increased the amount of paid leave employees will eventually be eligible to receive from 50 percent, to 66 percent of their weekly paycheck.